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Friday, September 26, 2008

Friday, September 26, 2008

Wow.

Apparently last week's post in which I 'fessed up to my cupcake cake aversion hit a nerve. Or, a hundred nerves. Yep, my inbox has been inundated with e-mails both defending the hapless creation and joining me on the side of decency and real cakes.

(And just to be clear: I have no problems with cupcakes. C'mon: mini cakes you don't have to share? What's not to like? No, it's only when you cram a bunch of them together and slop on a gallon of icing to make a smooth surface that my eyelid begins to twitch uncontrollably. Ok? So, to sum up: cupcakes good, cupcake cakes baaaad.)

The best part about all this public outcry, however, are the photos you guys have sent in supposed "defense" of cupcake cakes. Many of them are so bad I can only hope you guys are being sarcastic, 'cuz if not, daaaang.

An example:

If this looks familiar, it should: it's what the Ojai cupcake cake was supposed to look like. However, looking at it you can see that Ojai actually wasn't that far off the mark; I guess "shiny poo souffle" must be on the spec sheet.

Then there's this one:

Which I don't think is professionally done, but I am assured is still a "good" CCC.

These baffling creations, however, are professionally made:

But I don't get it. I guess the mounds made into animals are the cupcakes? Considering how messy that would be to serve, though, why not go with a real cake? Plus, that only serves 9 I'll-just-have-a-tiny-piece people, or 3 kids - which is hardly worth the effort.

Now granted, these are not the worst cupcake cakes I've seen - not by a long shot - but keep in mind that all of the above were sent in as examples of "good" cupcake cakes, people. As in, seeing these should make me change my mind and start likingCCCs. This goes to show two things:

1) Readers L.G., Callie C., Michelle M., and Valerie M. are sweet people who undoubtedly see the best in everyone, and

2) anything e-mailed to Cake Wrecks is fair game. Just sayin'.

The CCC indecency is spreading, too: check out this article in a recent issue of Family Fun sent in by Jess T. & Kelli:

"An easier way to decorate cupcakes"?!? That thing looks more like a radioactive zombie cloud than a pumpkin!

Of course now I know I have to throw some "good" cupcakes cake examples in here, if for no other reason than to prevent another tidal wave of angry pro-CCC e-mails. Let's see here...

Well, due to the confusion over whether or not I was vilifying all cupcakes, about a billion of you sent in these iPhone cupcakes:

Which are cute, but don't count; they're separate cakes and therefore Jen-approved.

Ok, we still need a "good" cupcake cake. (Yes, the "good" will always be in quotation marks.)Hm. Ah, here ya go:

There's the ticket: draw the design inside the edges, thereby avoiding the scalloped look. Bravo, Carrie S.; you found a "good" one!

And Katie S.'s is still scalloped, but nicely done:

So there are two exceptions that prove the rule. I still maintain, however, that anything a cupcake cake can do:

The beauty of a cupcake is it's cleanliness and that you don't have to share. You get your own lil' personal cake that you can eat without the aid of a fork or plate.

CCCs take everything sacred about cupcakes and ruin it: they're incredibly messy and have now become a part of a greater whole that you must destroy to enjoy.

I'm sure it's a great position for the more existential cupcakes that need to feel like they're part of something bigger, but I hate ingesting that much frosting and having my cupcake-fingers stained with three-inch-thick frosting.

I've never seen a cupcake cake other than on this blog, and from what I've seen, they're generally pretty ugly. The football and tree one you showed weren't bad. And I actually like the Van Gogh one better than the cake version, because the cake looks stringy and yucky to eat. But I agree generally cupcakes are better separate. Or, for example, as part of cake decoration. My husband and I once made a cookie monster cake at our son's request and used cupcakes for the eyes, for example. The rest of the face was made from normal cake.

OK, before the storm of CCC lovers hits, I would like to be on record as saying I have always thought CCC's were FUGLY and a poor excuse for a food product much less a dessert.Thanks for upholding the good name of REAL cakes and REAL cupcakes.. even wreckalicious ones! Adele

Cupcakes are meant to be individual items, not slopped together to turn it into something else. That's why there are cupcakes & then there are cakes. The iPhone cupcakes are cool, but like you said...they are cupcakes, not a cake!! Oh well, point taken...even if not everyone agrees.

I have to agree about the CCC issue in general, but the Munch painting example limps a bit. IMO the CCC-Munch is good whereas the real cake version just looks... well.. creepy. Sorry. I guess it's the frames and conventional 2D-imaging on the CCC version that do the trick for me whereas the "heap of weirdness" on the real cake just puts me off.

Why, people, why??? Just make some pretty cupcakes if you want cupcakes! It takes all of 5 seconds to artfully decorate a cupcake- you can do it! If you want it to look like real cake- GET A REAL CAKE!

I totally agree with you. However, that last CCC was awesome until I saw the cake version. Scalloped, yes, but awesomely creative with the frame and everything. I've often thought that half cupcakes around the edges to removed the scalloped look would be helpful, but then it would be a sheet cake....

That pumpkin cupcake cake looks kinda crazy. I am sure if you turned your back on it, when you spun around it would be right behind you, with that psycho grin on it's "face". Yup. That's a cake that would kill you in your sleep. I'm positive.

I do like the Starry Night Cakes. I am not sure whatone of the cakes on the page is supposed to be. It sort of looks like a bra stuffed with more than the usual number of breasts. My final decision is that it might be a watermelon, but I dunno.... (dang, I see that other people saw the same thing!)

I always look at cupcake cakes as a way of cheating me out of my fair share of cake and trying to compensate with way too much icing.

I can't say that the pros and cons of cupcake cakes rank as something to get worked up about in my world, but one thing I find really intriguing here: what kind of occasion requires a Van Gogh cake? "Congratulations on cutting off your ear?" "Congratulations on your migraine?" Weird.

-- if you're going for a square, then make a sheet cake! but there are benefits to a ccc -- like at a picnic, no cutting, you just pull off a cupcake.--- and you can easily mix flavors to allow for folks with chocolate allergies---you can create odd shapes (like that pine tree, that was a cool one)

I think that the ones that show those rounded corners everywhere are not really professional ones.

I guess I'm just a tacky person, because for the sake of kids parties, I do love the cupcake cake. I agree, the one I got my son last year had a ton of icing spilling over the side, but for my 2 year old, that pretty made me the best mom ever. For something more classy, though, I'm with you, seperate cupcakes or a regular cake. Your blog makes me laugh daily, by the way, and also makes me scared to death that the cake I'll be attempting for my soon to be 3 year old won't end up here, lol (I promise it won't be a CCC!)

I have to agree. The CCCs usually make me want to call my dentist because my teeth hurt from seeing all the icing. Just frost the cupcakes individually. It takes just as long as to make all that good attempt to look "good."

The Starry Night cake is actually using 3 different Van Gogh paintings, one for each layer, hence the orange icing in the middle. I also prefer the CCC version of that one, but I think a different photo angle would make the true cake look better.

The "Impressionist" cake on the bottom just screams of "Oh, I LOVE Impressionists, I hang them all over my dorm room, I just love art" with its bizarre Monet/Van Gogh combo. I can't believe any real art lover would be happy with that. It totally abuses the aesthetic.

The cupcake Starry Night, on the other hand, demonstrates a real understanding of the painting, even if it IS still demeaning.

The cupcake cake is like buying a print. The "real" cake is like buying an "Impressionist" coffee cup.

At ICES this year, did you see Mike Terry's Fat Buddies? These were cupcakes that were completely covered in icing. I think that is what that one person was trying to accomplished but was not so successful. PS: I enjoy doing cupcake cakes but these are not the best representations of them!

Um, yeah... I'm gonna have to agree with you on most counts there, Jen. I do like cupcake cakes, especially for kids' parties -- less potential mess to clean up, no complaining about who got the better piece, arguments over the corner, etc.

However...

I'm severely disappointed that nobody (including you, Jen) seemed to notice that the "ducks" had 4 flippers... FOUR FLIPPERS???

Jen just to give you a little support, I asked the lady that owns our local cupcake specialty store (yes we have one and it rocks) if she ever made cupcake cakes with her creations. The look of horror she gave me in response suggested I'd actually just asked her if she used fresh puppies in her recipes before she replied, "Ewww, no!"On a side note, I feel kind of sorry for the rat-thing on the animal-things cake. No wonder he looks so cranky...he's surrounded by carnivore-things!

Thanks again for always entertaining ! I happen to love cupcakes, but not CCC's. Very confusing. I am enjoying the break from the hurricane by checking out your site...My sister makes some pretty cupcakes for her home business...check them out at "heartspunimagery.typepad.com" There are 2 archived sections that have "Willy Wonka" in the title....Thanks !

At first, I found the first CCC I saw at a local Wal-Mart intriguing. THEN I realized what I was looking at and the shock began to wear off. These things are horrible. Plus, it started a trend...They are EXTREMELY popular in Ohio. Personally, I would refuse to make one, unless appropraitely bribed, then I would deny everything!

From your post, I'd have to conclude that CCCs can be good, but are not to be attempted without an excellent design & real talent. I can see their usefulness, in situations where knives & forks aren't wanted/available (i.e. outdoors where you can just hose the frosting off of everyone).

As for the Van Gogh debate, I saw another image of the CCC that I thought looked disGUSTing, because it was easier to see the inch-thick layer of icing needed to pull it off. I'll have a slice of the interpretive but edible Real Cake, please!

You are usually right, but I'd bet a consensus would say the Starry Night cupcake cake is a better rendition of VG's painting. That creator should get credit where credit is due. That is beautifully done!

I whole heartedly agree - cupcakes - YUM! CCC - very rarely turn out ok. The Van Gogh being among the rare. WOW!!! I am loving both versions of Starry Night!(Oh - and is it just me, but the ducks look like they are trying to impersonate a cartoon version of a hound following a trail.... or they came from Tyson have have some severe hormonal issues!)

I'm not a fan of cupcake cakes. I think it's too messy, honestly and I'm not a huge fan of over-frosting a cupcake (little kids make enough of a mess on their own without being given extra frosting). Give me a real cake that I can cut into pieces as big as I want ;)

I admit that I'm a CCC-hater, but the football one isn't THAT bad. You do need to not try to include the edges of the cupcakes in the picture. That was my favorite part of the flower-power Spiderman from last week.

Starry night, however, is great. And the real cake does look better. I'm a HUGE Van Gogh fan, so that warms my heart.

I am a big cupcake fan and have made hundreds of goofy, witty, pretty and yummy little gems over the years. I have even duplicated a teeny turkey dinner (white meat with gravy, mashed potatoes and peas) on a Peek Phreans cookie "plate" (thanks to Family Fun mag). Constructing a cake from them, however, seems like a lot of fuss for little payoff.

I'd never heard of cupcake cakes before this blog, but the palm tree is pretty cool. The scalloped edges make it more realistic! And I agree with the others that the cupcake Starry Night looks better than the cake version.

I'm sure others will comment on this too... but just to point out that the last cake is actually 3 different famous Impressionist paintings: Van Gogh on top, middle layer is one of Monet's "Haystack" paintings, bottom is Monet's "Waterlillies". NONE of them is Munch, Kriisi!

Jen, my name should read "glutenfreegirl"--I left off the "n"in "gluten", which makes it look as if I have no glutes....which, thanks to all the cupcakes I bake, couldn't be farther from the truth! LOVE your site--excellent work!

I am only a fan of the Mario Bros cupcake cake, where the cupcakes are all separated, like pixels. What is the point of having individual cakes if you're just going to assemble them in one massive blob?

The layer cake with Starry Night, on closer look, is representing more than one painting, with only the top layer being Starry Night. It's pretty awesome looking, but I'm a little grossed out by the volume of icing, as far as actually eating it goes.

I'm generally anti-cc myself, but I do like the Starry Night CC, and the palm tree's...not terrible. Just make a cake, seriously. Do people have that much trouble slicing cakes?

I have to agree on the CCC's. A bad idea all around, except on the Van Gogh. I think it works because of the circular swirls in the sky. Your eye is drawn to them and their movement so you don't notice the scallop edging.

oh please! I think the lady in Family Fun who says that frosting that pumpkin cake is EASIER,well, she's full of hooey. I like how she sorta-kinda makes it look like she came up with the cupcake cake idea on her own.

And the real kicker of this whole post is the CCC-ers defending their 'art', while still coming to this site to make fun of dorky cakes. Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black?!

A) What bizarre biosphere do these decorators live in, where ducks and elephants cohabitate with penguins and polar bears?

B) Any parent who serves one of these better wear combat gear when they do, because there's gonna be serious trouble when little Suzie and Tiffanie, who have seen "Happy Feet" 382 times between them, have a huge throw-down about who gets the cupcake with the penguin. It's worse than fights about who gets the corner pieces or the roses!

I agree with the cupcake cakes. The look like heart attacks just waiting to happen. They make me want to have a panic attack. How can they be an easier to eat than cake. It be like eating a melting ice cream cone.

You probably look ridiculous trying to eat the thing.

Your tongue sticking out of your mouth to the the side.

Trying to catch the food color infested icing that is falling off on every side.

Frosting smeared across your cheeks.(Maybe you are gong to a Halloween party later)

Okay, so I'm actually not that adverse to CCC's however they need to be done right. A few of the ones you've shown were done right in my opinion. The best part of CCC's is that it's actually easier to Scrape off the icing than it is w/ sliced cake!

I'd never seen a cupcake cake before I read your blog. Maybe I just have a family that loves me. ;) In theory, cupcake cakes sound cool (no cutting involved!) but in practice, they generally seem lame.

I have never in my life seen a cupcake cake before, until the original post. Oh, how I long for the innocent days when I did not know of its existence ...... I suppose it's a good idea, to make sure that everyone gets the same size piece, etc, but it's just WEIRD.

I'm so ashamed. As one who has biology and nature near the top of my interests, I should have noticed the many feet on the ducks. Hmmmm, maybe that cake represents what nuclear waste will do to the pond - and explains the other odd critters. However, they left out the three-eyed fish, surely that should be a part of this cake!

Does anyone else see a person flipping them off in the starry night cake? It could just be my mobile, but I swear the stars on top make two eyes, and there's a swirly line mouth, and then a raised middle finger from the building thing.

"Square cupcakes" are just mini-cakes, and pros make them all the time for wedding cakes - they're quite the "in" thing to do these days. Slice up a sheet cake, decorate each one individually, you've got a bunch of mini-cakes. But if what you want is square edges, why bother making anything other than a square-edged cake?

It's to my way of thinking that if you want a big cake, make a big cake; if you want the convenience of cupcakes, just do cupcakes. Especially for kids - as has been noted, it's convenient, and it provides easy cleanup. Not to mention that the work of making a bunch of cupcakes and then trying to ice them all together with frosting or icing that's thick enough not to sag in the spaces between the cupcakes is tonnes more than necessary.

One thing I have learned in life is that most kids are just happy to have cake. It's largely parents that go for elaborate setups and overdone cakes, generally just to show off what great parents they are. Your kids love you! Give them finger-food and always carry a packet of Wet Ones. Easy.

Well my family uses the cupcake cake at kids parties because you dont have to cut em, kids love em, and they are less messy. Today being my birthday, I am hoping for one of those big chocolate chip cookie cakes!

Since when are ducks quadrupeds? As to the penguin behind them, my brother and I had a philosophical disagreement about him. I say he looks horrified because he's on the verge of exploding, while my brother believes him to be an enraged potential interspecies rapist about to act. I leave it to wiser heads to decide the question.

The watermelon CCC makes my point perfectly about what's wrong with CCCs in general: if they have enough icing to make the picture clear, then there's five times too much icing for anyone to eat and you wind up with a gigantic mess; if the cupcakes are iced individually and arranged, then it takes far too much effort to figure out what it's supposed to be.

I'm actually a bit divided on the Impressionist CCC and cake. I think the CCC is a far better interpretation of a painting, and rather spectacular to look at, but I can't imagine wanting to try to eat a 'piece.' The regular cake frankly makes me feel a bit queasy to look at, but I'd absolutely try a slice.

Oh, and my brother took one look at the pumpkin and started muttering: "Can't sleep, pumpkin will eat me."

Oh, I noticed the supernumerary mutant duck feet (just got here). It reminded me of the baseball "diamond" from the other day. But the ickiest thing about those animalump "cakes" is the lake of frosting background that doesn't seem to be frosting anything but a board. Bleah.

My thoughts while reading this post:What, exactly, is that pink cupcake thing supposed to be? Is it an open blouse of a woman with measles? Is it a splitting heart? What?The ccc palm tree looks pretty good to me; bark can be lumpy, I suppose.Love the iPhone.That's a PUMPKIN?! I thought it was a bunch of grapes! Come to think of it, if you wanted a bunch of grapes cake, wouldn't a ccc be the way to go?The Van Gogh cakes amuse me and disgust me at the same time. First, to anyone who's ever seen a Van Gogh in person, the idea of imitating his thick, gobby painting style with icing, has got to be amusing. (I'm not dissing VG here. I am commenting on the thickness of the paint he slapped on canvas.) But -- I could not possibly eat a cake (ccc or otherwise) that had huge, thick blobs of VG blue icing on it. Ewwwww. It seems to me that these people, like the ones who made that disturbing baby cake, forgot that a cake is generally meant to be eaten.

However, I think I'd like to see a Jackson Pollock cake. I'm no decorator, but I'm visualizing a large white sheet cake with bright streams of thin icing going everywhere. I would be highly amused to see that!

I'm pretty solidly anti-CCC. The "easier to serve" argument just doesn't make sense. Want to serve cupcakes instead of a real cake? Wouldn't it be easier and cleaner to, I dunno, keep the cupcakes separate?

I agree with the hatred of CCCs. I had someone contact me several months ago to do a my little pony birthday cake. Cool, I thought, that could be fun. Then she dropped the CCC bomb. I said, "I'm sorry but I can't make a CCC meet my professional standards. Here are some other options." including individual cupcakes or a 2D cutout pony cake. Ultimately it didn't work out because she wanted a grocery store cake price. Oh well. I'd rather not make money than end up with a cake on your blog. :)

I kinda like the one that has an island scene, well wait, I think the frosting and colors are horrendous, but the shape looks like a postcard. So it could be fitting, just with better frosting. Love the Van Gogh Starry night and agree with the football one looking better because the design was inside the edge, way better! I think the animal mounds are gross, and messy, and way too sugary, ick.

I have to say that while I agree with you on CCC in general, I think you are wrong about the Starry Night comparison. I think the CCC version is much better, paritially because it can be served on a frame, and also because the cake just looks like a big old mess.

That's supposed to be a watermelon? Count one more person who thought "low-cut blouse".

CCCs are only easier to make if you're getting someone else to slather on enough frosting for a smooth surface. And who needs that much frosting?

If you want "easy to frost", forget CCCs -- for a birthday party, some friends of mine made cupcakes and put them on the table with several flavors of frosting. Everyone got the exact frosting flavor/style/amount they wanted. (Granted, all the guests were adults. I wouldn't try this for a kid's party unless it was held outside next to the garden hose.)

Clearly it is possible to make a cupcake-cake look good, but it's still a horrible idea because of all that extra frosting. It would be a nightmare of a mess!

That Starry Night cupcake-cake looks fantastic, but a normal rectangular cake would have looked better, filling in the frame with no scalloped edges.

And one thing I've been wondering... am I the only person on the planet who has ever had a slice of regular cake served on a paper napkin, thus eliminating the need for those dreaded plates and forks? It's really no different than a cupcake in the easy clean-up department, or in the way you eat it. And it doesn't have massive globs of frosting oozing all over the place. So I question "You don't have to use plates or utensils!" as a selling point for cupcake-cakes. You never did have to use them.

Individual cupcakes, however, are awesome. People just need to appreciate them for what they are (small individual cakes) and not try to make them into full size cakes.

No one will ever convince me (ever!) that a CCC is easier than separate cupcakes. You know you can glob a pound of icing on separate cupcakes and still be a hero to kids. It's black and white to me, regular cake or separate cupcakes. Someone mentioned pull apart cake earlier, that's a completely separate animal. They make cake pans in specific shapes for that and while each piece is smaller in size and can be pulled off like a cupcake, they are not actually cupcakes.

Umm.. anyone else notice how all the scary ughly cakes (as opposed to scary content cakes) are all buttercream/royal/whipped icing? Those with the skill to work in fondant and even the liquid stuff (that dries like a plate - Evenflow??) tend to have better taste. And none are CCC.... makes you think!

I surprised that nobody realized (at least I think) that the purple pimp-mobile cupcake cake is a MUCH better attempt at the "suicide run through a radioactive river on blood" wreck entitled "Ow." I recognized it immediately because I'm still wearing an eye patch from the ruptured retinal blood vessel I endured from laughing so hard that day. Of course, I use the words "MUCH better attempt" loosely, as it is still ugly, but at least we know now what the "pit stop cupcake" was supposed to be!!!

BTW I like both Van Gogh cakes because they're creative and I can only imagine VERY difficult to attempt! So many icing colors to mix up and get just right! Kudos!

I don't get why people don't use square cupcakes for the CCCs, I mean, yeah, a real cake still could easily do better, but the CCCs would be decent.

I found a version of the first CCC there, the beach one, it was done very well, for that cake design. Because, that design is destined for failure, no matter how good you are with cakes. It was the best CCC I've seen, but...crap.

I agree on not liking the CCC's, but do like your "good" examples. however, I'm rather disappointed that you didn't draw a comparison of watermellon ones to the watermellon cake! how could you miss THAT one? It was the first thing I thought of.

nancy b: Gurl you almost got me in trouble with your comment about the psycho pumpkin CCC. Almost got caught by my Job Search Development Case Mrg. LOL!(It's coming for you nancy, it's comming, Maaaaaaaaawhahaha!)Jen: I hate to jump on the Starry Night CCC looks good bandwagon but yeah, it looks slightly better that the Van Gogh, Mamet, Monet, cake. Sorry, gurl! But hey all the rest of the examples people sd were good were not so good. Beside what beats a good Hostess Chocolate cupcake? Nothing I can see, except a homemake single chocolate cupcake with chocolate Icing of course! ;)Peace!,Clueuin

Looking at those cupcakes with icing oozing over the edges just makes me teeth hurt looking at them! Plus I love it when I serve those things at a classroom birthday and 10 minutes after eating, the kids all say, "Uh....I have to go to the bathroom!" Oops that icing must run through fast!

What I don't understand is why anyone chooses to have a CCC instead of choosing either a plain old cake or plain old cupcakes. People keep saying that a CCC allows for dividing the "cake" into pieces more easily and the pieces can be eaten by hand and without utensils or plates, but since the very same thing can be had by serving individual cupcakes (and even more easily, since they can be made with less oozing frosting)why would you not just serve cupcakes? Heck, serving cupcakes would allow you to cater for individual tastes by having a variety of flavours (white cake, chocolate cake, yellow cake, etc.) as well as allowing for variety in the decorating options on each little cupcake. The kids who like bunnies could have ones with bunnies, the kids who like dogs could have cupcakes with dogs, and so on. Easier, less messy, more attractive, more choices... why would a CCC be a better option than cupcakes, again? Please, help me "get" this fad. I'm just lost. My own kid always loved cupcakes, and never would have felt that having cupcakes at his party was a disappointment, especially since the cupcakes were always so cute and were a hit with his pals. Surely he's not so different from other kids?

I agree with everyone who said the Van Gogh CCC is better than the real cake. But it would have been better still as a regular sheet cake.

I also think the little animals are cute, but I don't think they count as CCC's. They are individually frosted, after all. I would probably have them on top of a normal cake though. And they have too much frosting. But cute.

I agree that the starry night cake is better than the cupcakes. Cupcakes are fine as long as they are separate. If you are going to put them together, than just get a cake. If you want cupcakes, then leave them separate.

Besides the main issue of working with a scalloped edge, which hardly ever goes well, I worry about what happens when someone pulls a cupcake off the cupcake cake. I'm sure the glopped-on icing stretches along with it and probably runs down the edges of what's left of the cupcake colony.Bleh!

Perhaps people get cupcake cakes to avoid using knives to cut cake with, or because they're sure someone will throw a fit about not getting a big enough/small enough/corner piece?

I'm still not convinced...I didn't know CCC existed, I don't like them. They just look like a huge mess to me. I always thought the purpose of a cupcake was so the wee one's wouldn't make such a mess. Was I wrong?

I was enjoying reading the comments until someone wrote FOILage instead of FOLIage. *double eye twitch* One for the cakes and one for the all-too-common misspelled (and often mispronounced as well) word.

I've never attemped to make a cupcake cake because I hate the idea of having to stick the paper cups down on the board with icing. Of course I'm not even sure if this is how everyone does it, but did see one my brother-in-law brought to his son's class for Christmas and it was a pure mess!But that Van Gogh Cake!!!! That thing is awesome! Who did that?

You know, it’s not like the decorators had any choice when it came to these cupcake cakes, so I think it’s pretty mean of you to pick on them for just doing their job. How would you like it if people were constantly complaining to you about what YOU do for a living?

I agree that all cupcake cakes are bad, but I don't think the Starry Night real cake is very good, either. Too much globby, colored frosting and it looks like it has three fried eggs on top. I would have expected to see that on here as a wreck.

I think CCCs do have their place in the world, and that's for little kids. As a preschool teacher, cupcakes are much easier to deal with than a whole cake, and if a child wants a particular theme, frosting them as a whole makes it easier. You're going to destroy the picture when serving whether it's a CCC or regular cake. As for the argument of too much frosting - all cupcakes have too much frosting, and most cakes (store-bought ones at least) use globs of frosting for decoration (particularly frosting balloons, yuck!), which is a mess to serve. I do agree, however, that for anything other than a child's party (or possibly a themed picnic), CCCs are probably inappropriate.

i personally think it's horrible that you have to defend your views on your own blog. if people are so butthurt that you don't like cupcake cakes they should just move right on along. i'm sure there's plenty of cupcake cake-love blogs out there.

that being said, the last two photos are downright amazing. the cupcake cake version is so CLASSY because it has the frame and the tiered counterpart is just a beautiful (delicious!) reproduction. i love seeing great cakes right along side the shoddy ones.

I'm approximately comment number 3,471, so my two cents may not count for much, but I completely agree with you. Cupcake "cakes" make no sense to me. Why wouldn't you just want a cake? Or cupcakes? Why would you want to pull a cupcake out of a messy glop of frosting and then try to eat it? Uck.

Ok - I have actually made a few CCCs. The benefit is saving decorating time. Imagine decorating individual cupcakes for a large number of people (like a couple of classes at your child's school...). Yes, it can be done, but in a time crunch, the CCC is faster.

The down side is that they usually do not look very good. I will admit that mine really were wrecks! I now try to cleave only unto cakes! HA!

Another vote for the CCC Starry Nights. I also was boggled by the three-footed and four-footed ducks.I would never have guessed that was supposed to be a watermelon; I justassumed it was a party dress with a spotted veil over the decolletage.

Isn't it funny when you make a preference known that people feel this overwhelming urge to try to convince you otherwise?

For example, my husband and I don't like animated movies. As soon as I say that, people act like I've said I don't like butterflies or babies. They immediately start rattling through all the Pixar movies that I'm supposed to like.

I'm the person who did the impressionist cake (yes I know van gogh is post-impressionist). I love cake wrecks, I've always worried about ending up on here, but this is very cool and I'm quite flattered.

I have to say the cupcake version is amazing. My cake tends to make a better impact from a little farther away and with a view of all 3 paintings (van gogh, monet, monet). I was lucky enough to do another monet sheet cake later on. http://www.flickr.com/photos/megpi/2805468212/in/set-72157594288651942/

Also, there's nothing wrong with cupcakes, but the ccc just seems pointless.

OK...I am a cake decorator and in all honesty, when someone came in wanting a CCC, I tried, often in vain, to talk them out of it! You *think* this is a less messy alternative...NO! 1. There are globs of icing on the bottoms to hold them in place so that they can be decorated, and 2. there is even more globs of icing in between them coz there is like a 1/4 inch GAP around the tops of the cupcakes, and it takes a MEGA-TON of icing to fill in those gaps for the supposed smooth surface! Twice as much as a "normal" sheet cake! *QUOTE---- and you can easily mix flavors to allow for folks with chocolate allergies* DUH!!! A LOT of bakeries DO make half 'n half cakes if you ask!

well...cupcake cakes i suppose...are ok, if done properly. some of those looked pretty, and i guess it's handy in a way that allowes you to shate cake without having to cut it. but cakes are much better. i can have a big piece if i wanted. much better see?

CCC are generally abhorrent and should be shunned by all folk of good cake taste.

That said, I think the CCC version of Van Gogh's "Starry Night" captures the original better than the multi-layer real cake. Part of it is I am put off by the multi-dimensional take on an already disturbing painting.

As for the pink and green "watermelon" creation, get this. Several of us, me included, went immediately for the "light green nighty with freckled decollatage" description, with watermelon coming in second. My husband, who has a fairly sensitive "booby detector" didn't see anything but a watermelon. I think we have a new candidate for the "which do you see: two faces or a vase" test.

1) While I agree that the cupcake cake version of Starry Night was superior to the tiered cake version, cupcake caked are never a good idea. Why ruin the awesome single-serving goodness of a cupcake by attaching it to a dozen of its brethren with a metric ass-ton of technicolor frosting??

2) I should never read this blog while eating, as I spit popcorn onto my keyboard no fewer than 3 times reading this entry and its accompanying comments.

Well in regards to the article...I can see how kids would like pulling apart the cupcakes....BUT how can it possibly be EASIER to ice a bunch of rounded tops, that don't come together, into looking like one smooth surface?? I've never made one (probably never will, unless my daughter were to beg me one day...), but it just seems like the little spaces between the cupcakes would keep developing holes, and you'd have to shove more and more icing down in there...

I agree with whomever it was that said (sorry, I cannot face scrolling back up to quote them directly) that the van Gogh CCC just looked better because it was 2D with a frame, and that having done the same icing job on a normal rectangular sponge would have been even more impressive.

Cup cake cakes are thankfully not a thing I have ever seen in the UK.

They are unnatural. They defy the laws of Gestalt, and we shall have to concoct new laws to explain them. The sum of the whole is lamer than the sum of the parts.

The starry night ccc is very pretty. But, it would still have been better as a regular sheet cake- you know there has to be a full inch of frosting on there to create a smooth surface.

What really boggles the mind, though, is the people who insist a ccc is "less mess"- less mess than WHAT? It can't possibly be less mess than regular cupcakes, what with all that extra frosting glopping around, and it certainly isn't less mess than a regular sheet cake cut into neat little squares. Granted, I've never seen a ccc in real life, but I can't imagine any way to pull it apart that wouldn't leave big globs of frosting everywhere.

Hmmm... I would say that maybe those ducks are really platypuses, but neither ducks nor platypuses have pointy chicken beaks. So I'm guessing that maybe they're really those four-footed mutant chickens you hear about in the news sometimes.

This is the first time I have felt compelled to comment....Although I totally agree about cupcake cakes (though I had never encountered one or heard of them till reading cakewrecks) I have to disagree on one. That Starry Night ccc is awesome. I think it's better than the cake one.

I'm with you on banning the CCC's--it doesn't make sense to take a neat individual cupcake and turn it into a serving nightmare.

Some of the better ones were interesting to look at, but really...it would still be better on a sheet cake.

I like the look of the CCC Van Gogh--but again, say it with me...SHEET CAKE! It would have been even cooler to have the sheet cake in a frame--no scalloped edge = realism. (wait--can you combine realism and impressionism--artists?) ;)

And WHAT is with the individual animals on the cake board?! Look at all that wasted yummy icing on the board--you want us to scrape that stuff off and eat it? If there was--again--a SHEET CAKE under it, it would then be considered happily edible--and feed more than 3 people.

I'm stickin' with you, Jen--anything a CCC can do a REAL cake can do better!

Following a party last summer my sister sent home the leftover ccc with me, thinking my 4 teens would devour it...

... A week later the raccoons who come begging for food enjoyed the cupcakes, but even they left frosting in the grass. If it's too much frosting for a scavenger animal, it's too much for a human. These were truly the most flavorless, topheavy cupcakes possible.

I am a cake deocorator and I HATE CCC's!! I refuse to make them. It's either cake OR cupcakes people!! My boss asks me all the time if we are going to start making them, and I always tell him N-O! I don't care what Walmart does, we don't have to follow suit. (They are our biggest competitor in town)Love your blog!!

As a former preschool teacher, I've never found CCCs easier to serve or less messy to consume. I don't exactly hate them, but they'd never be my first choice.

I gotta admit: I had to laugh at the idea of someone taking your comments about CCCs personally when you're only poking fun--in a cheeky, though good-humored way--at various strange and silly cake creations. I have a few cake-decorating friends who've created some "monstrosities" during their careers and are the first to giggle about them. They work diligently to improve their art and craft, but they're great sports as well. I love that.

When I first saw the post about cupcake cakes, I thought you were talking about those damn cake pans that make a large sized "cupcake"... what's the point of that? "It's like a small cake, but it's big!" So serve a big cake, genius.

I had never personally seen a cupcake cake -- or even looked for one -- until reading this blog.

Today, I saw one in the bakery section of a local store. It was designed as a tic-tac-toe board, and while the icing wasn't overwhelming, it was . . . well, it was four cupcakes wide and three down. This spread the grid out in a rather awkward way. I wish I'd had a camera.

Maybe it's because I'm an English teacher, but it REALLY bothers me that hardly any cakes are punctuated correctly. If we are holding them to correct spelling standards, they should be held to correct punctuation standards as well. It should be "Happy birthday, Jake." It should not be "Happy birthday Jake." Yes, a comma is always used to separate a name in a phrase or sentence.

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A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate - you name it. A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it's simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons. Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I'm not here to vilify decorators: Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places.

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